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Owner of PageF30.com.
Translator of Demian by Hermann Hesse into English - an interlinear translation for German students and those who want to see the original text.
http://www.lulu.com/spotlight/mithradates
Fluent in Japanese, Korean. Proficient in Mandarin, Turkish, German, French, Portuguese, others.

Thursday, May 14, 2009

Man, I love these old newspapers from the early 20th century. When was the last time you saw an article about an auxlang on the front page? I wrote a post a few days ago about articles mentioning Esperanto and even Latino sine Flexione, and I found one on Ido as well. Actually two, but I'll show the other one a bit later. This newspaper is called the Southtown Economist (formerly known as the Englewood Economist), and now it seems to be called the SouthtownStar; it's from Chicago. Here it is.

PREDICTS RADIO FANS TO ADOPT IDO LANGUAGE

Broadcast Listeners' Speaker Explains Universal Tongue

"Ido," the universal radio language, will completely revolutionize radio sending and receiving, in the opinion of Eugene F. (P.?) McPike, 5418 Woodlawn ave., speaker at the meeting of the Broadcast Listeners' association Friday evening at the Hamilton Park Field house.

"For nearly 300 years," Mr. McPike said, "an international language has been considered necessary by students. Esperanto, developed in 1887, was a remarkable contribution towards the solution of the problem, but was artificial and unscientific. Ido will meet this need, for it is the invention of [sic] one man, but the result of scientific discoveries from the neo-Latin tongues of Europe."

Long distance broadcasting has been difficult because of language differences, and in Europe with its crowded national boundaries, the trouble is much greater than in this country. The use of "Ido" is advocated by Mr. McPike and European scientists with whom he is co-operating in the compilation of a lexicon of radio terms, now in the hands of the printers. That the language is easily learned is the claim of its Chicago student, because the English sentence order is retained, but one conjugation of verbs is used, and case endings are uncommon. Besides, the German vowel sounds and the general construction of the language make it almost as euphonistic as Italian, it is claimed.

"It will be only a matter of a few years until every radio fan knows Ido (pronounced Edo), Mr. McPike believes, although he assured the audience that there is no thought of substituting it for native tongues in literature and conversation.

E. T. Flewelling, speaking on the subject of "Common Sense in Radio," and basing his views on twenty years' experience as a radio engineer, advised his audience to discount a great deal of the literature being published on the subject of radio, because there has been no development of practical value in radio during the last eight or nine years. In building a set, he urged that no one item should receive too much attention, but that the co-ordination of the whole set be the goal.

"Radio already provides an easy method of securing an education," he declared. "But it will become really successful only when it is developed to the point where it will hold the interest of the people who want music as an art, not radio as an electrical experiment."

"Any circuit is only as good as its tuning apparatus," declared A. L. Baker, electrical engineer of the Commonwealth Edison company, in speaking of the superhetrodine. Like Mr. Flewelling, he emphasized the fact that the amateur radio builder should remember that his apparatus must coordinate.